Thunderbird, from Windows XP to Mac OS X

  2010-09-08      149 words, 1 minutes

• osx
• thunderbird
• windows

I have one running instance of Thunderbird running on my netbook. I’d like to make a full copy of it onto my MacBook so that I don’t have to redo the whole configuration and plugin installation…

Migration steps

Here’s a way to quickly migrate your Windows XP Thunderbird’s instance onto your Mac:

• Install Thunderbird for the Mac;
• Start Thunderbird and cancel the profile creation;
• Close Thunderbird ;
• Copy the Windows XP profile data in the OSX profile directory;

cp -pr /Volumes/Windows XP/Documents and Settings/jdoe/ApplicationData/Thunderbird/Profiles/32h6btju.default /Users/jdoe/Library/Thunderbird/Profiles/  

• Edit the profiles.ini file from the Mac instance ;

Path=Profiles/32h6btju.default

• Start Thunderbird.

The first Mac profile, the one create on first start, can be deleted.

I had to reinstall the Lightning module to have it work. The configuration was correctly copied though ; so I didn’t have to reconfigure it.

Source: Transférer ses Mails de Thunderbird PC (Windows XP) vers Thunderbird Mac (Mac OS)